Advent Welcome and Week 1

Advent Welcome and Reflection: Luke Dowding

Sunday 3 December 2023

Advent is upon us, and the expectant waiting that is expected of us usually must wait for another time, another season. I certainly hold my hands up to being guilty of putting the Christmas cart before the Advent horse, eager to celebrate with light and laughter amid the winter weather that besets us in the northern hemisphere. Christmas is the most wonderful time of year for me, and that desire for delight often trumps the need to reflect in the stillness and silence.

Much of our Christian faith is shaped by waiting, whether it be in these weeks of Advent, through the journey of Lent, or in that solemn day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Whilst those of us who are familiar with the Christian walk may know what comes next, there is an expectation that we will enter each period of waiting anew. 

However, this isn’t a Pantomime in which we all, no matter how many times we’ve been, go along with the jokes and calls of “she’s behind you!”, allowing a playful ignorance to wash over us as if we have no idea that the “baddy” is going to eventually experience a life-changing moment of conversion to the side of the “goodies”, and everything will be neatly tied up with a bow – usually with a sparkly, shiny wedding to wrap things up nicely.

Many of us know where this path through Advent leads us to, and it is because of this cosmic event played out in the humdrum of humanity that we are where we are today. Yet, here I am, getting ahead of myself again. So, in Advent we are not expected to play the part of the Panto Dame (as wild a time as they have), feigning ignorance at what comes next, but instead, each year consider again this period of expectant waiting in the totality of our experiences.

Advent is an opportunity to sit with all that we have inhabited in the year before, knowing what is to come. Knowing WHO is to come. For some, this is a hardship not because of a keenness to reach Christmas, but because life itself has dealt too many knock-out blows. Embracing the solemnity of Advent can be as intimidating as the dazzling decadence of a corporate Christmas. In my own family this past year we have experienced profound lament, and if I am honest, I am intimidated by what waits in the shadows in which the light has not yet reached. 

There has also been great joy, with my niece recently turning one! She has turned our lives upside down, not least for my sister and brother-in-law, but her laughter, curiosity, and friendly nature have captured all our hearts. She is a reminder of the light in the depths, a candle burning bright on a cold night.

That may be the conundrum that many of us face this Advent: a world at war, a church divided, lives struggling to be nourished in body and spirit; yet, finding joy, even if only a small flickering candle. As LGBT+ Christians and allies, it is no small task to find a balance between lament and hope, yet perhaps Advent provides a space for us to do so. The season of expectant waiting that expects nothing of us, except to wait upon the coming dawn.

The OneBodyOneFaith team invite you this year to journey with us using the reflections in this series. It is a gentle invitation, to take what is helpful, and leave behind that which might be for someone else. As a team we have begun to theologically explore the concept of “embodiment theology”, which we describe as: the understanding that embodiment is the natural state of every human being – in which we all consist of both spirit and flesh, and that these facets of our existence ought not to deny or neglect one another.

Advent, we feel, is a beautiful time to dwell amongst some of the questions this raises, as we prepare for the embodiment of the Divine. We know that for LGBT+ Christians our physicality has so often been denied, vilified, and shamed; it is our hope that our work exploring embodiment theology may contribute to the reintegration of flesh and spirit, uniting the whole created being.

I am grateful that two of our Patrons, Dawn Savidge (London, UK) and Lauren Matthew (Durban, South Africa), and Fr Lee Taylor, our team member dedicated to Member Care, and Chaplain to Rhythm, will be our guides for the Advent weeks ahead. Through their words and reflections, I pray that you will embrace the invitation to wait, in the fullness of your created being. 

To close, if it is your practice, I invite you to pray these words with us this week. You may want to find the same time each day to read the text from Scripture and then offer the prayer, the repetition offering an opportunity for the words to find a home in our hearts, and a reminder that this period is not the coming of the New, but preparation for it. You may also want this to be a moving prayer, perhaps whilst on a walk, or using the suggestions for movement in italics in the comfort of your own space. This method, of embodying a prayer, encourages us to feel the words, and let them dwell within the fibres of our being.

Thank you for walking the stepping stones of Advent with us this year. 

Peace. 

Luke Dowding

CEO

 

Embodied Prayer

If you are walking, pause for a moment, or if you are inside and still, find a comfortable position to read these words from 1 Timothy 3:16:

Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.

Read the passage again, this time: slow down. Try and focus on each word, perhaps even speaking them aloud if you feel comfortable to do so in the context you are in.

What do you notice? How do you feel when you say these words more than once? 

As we come to pray, you might follow the guidelines in bracketed italics to feel movement in your body where you are able, or you may continue to walk, pausing to read the next line of the prayer and observing any response in your physical body. If you are in a space that allows it, you may wish to light a candle when prompted.

Let us pray.

Advent God, I praise your infinite wisdom as reflected in the unity of the universe and the shifting of the seasons, 

Through this prayer, I offer my thoughts and body, 

(gently place one hand on your head, and the other on your heart)

I take a moment to apologise for my contributions to that which causes us, others, and the world, to drift from a wholeness found in you,

In the stillness, I listen to the sound of my breath, a sign of the life you have instilled in me, and the breath of life you breathe across the created order,

(inhale and then exhale deeply, repeat three times – each time taking longer on each inhale and exhale)

God of hope, as we wait for the coming of your Son, the Light of the World, we nurture the flickering light as it not only guides our feet, but also encourages us to learn what is hidden in the shadows,

(if practical, you may light a candle at this time)

In the dance of the flickering light, I give thanks for the way in which my own body dances and moves, not in the gaze of others, but in the freedom of knowing that I am created as you made me to be,

(find a movement in your body that feels good, you might stretch your arms, even get up and sway, be as bold or as calm as you desire, before taking a comfortable static position again)

Through this season of Advent, may I begin or continue my journey of reconciliation with the whole self you created me to be, in the spirit of our God who “was revealed in flesh”,

May I wait patiently with you, alongside my siblings in Christ, who each day may also be praying these words this week, 

(bring your hands together, either in a classic prayer stance, or in another way that feels appropriate)

Advent God, who we find in the stillness and in the silence, in the waiting and the reflecting, guide us on the way to your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.